The first regular-season, nationally-televised volleyball match in Missouri Valley Conference history features the two teams with the most conference wins in the leagues 21-year history as No. 6-ranked Northern Iowa does battle with Illinois State at 6 p.m. Sunday in a match televised by College Sports Television (CSTV), the new national network for college sports.
The Panthers, 8-2, 1-0 in the Valley, are searching for their 62nd straight home-court victory, a mark which would tie Nebraska for the longest streak of its kind in NCAA Division I volleyball history. The last UNI home loss was Oct. 31, 1997 against Illinois State. Previously, the Birds bracketed a 50-match home-court victory streak for the Panthers in the early 1990s; ISU was UNIs last loss before the streak began in 1991, and ISU ended that streak in 1996 at West Gym.
The Redbirds, 5-6, 0-1 in the Valley, are more concerned with the immediate future than history. Some poor serves at inopportune times helped Bradley edge the Birds in five games on Friday night in Peoria. Laura Doornbos led the Birds with 16 kills and 7 service aces, but, despite more kills, more aces and more points, the Birds ended up on the short end.
Dingman agreed that the serving was a problem and strongly suggested that would be the No. 1 item on Saturdays practice agenda.
We will work on serving, said Dingman. Looking at the number of aces and errors, neither team (in the Bradley match) served or passed very well. But we gave up points at critical times.
A serve into the net on game point swung game three from ISU to BU, and the Birds had another net serve when serving to tie in game five. A total of 20 Redbird service errors provided one in six points scored by Bradley.
Since Northern Iowa leads the Valley in hitting percentage and kills per game, Illinois State will need strong serves to challenge the Panthers, who have Molly OBrien and Rachael Tink both averaging above 3.75 kills per game. UNIs Jill Arganbright (13.04 set assists per game) will send her offense against ISUs Kelly Rikli (11.65 assists per game) in a battle of two of the busiest setters in the league.
Doornbos (4.18) and Emily Kabbes (3.61) are the two most powerful weapons at Riklis disposal. When Kabbes hits over .400 this season, the Birds are undefeated.
The match, available on DirecTV Channel 610, will be shown on the TV screens of the Pub II in Normal and also will be carried live on WJBC, AM 1230, the flagship station of the Redbird Radio Network. The TV game is the third edition of CSTVs new match-of-the-week volleyball format the network calls Sunday Night Spikes. Kevin Eschenfelter and Heather Cox provide the play-by-play and commentary, while Tim Sutton leads the production crew. Cox, one of the nations best-known and most-experience volleyball announcers, previously televised Illinois State volleyball when she did the 1996 State Farm-NACWAA Classic in Redbird Arena for ESPN.
The network better have plenty of satellite time. The Birds have played at least two hours in nine of their 11 matches this season, topped by the 2-hour, 26-minute battle with Bradley on Friday.
The Redbirds return home for a weekend set with two other teams picked ahead of them in the Valley preseason poll--Friday at 7 p.m. vs. Southwest Missouri State and Saturday at 7 p.m. against Wichita State. The Bears (8-3, 1-0) and Shockers (7-4, 0-1) opened the Valley season against each other in Wichitas new Charles Koch Arena on Friday, with the Bears winning in a five-game set.
